If you want to know how the CPO is doing, please click here and you can read the updated report back on the period from June to the end of the year. Click here if you want to download a pledge form.

Good news - Tax relief for donations made in the UK!

Donations which attract tax relief may now be made in the United Kingdom to support the CPO and all its projects, including outreach and development. Business development/fundraising executive Zohra Dawood says that the UK Fund for Charities has accepted the CPO as a member of the UK Fundâ€™s International Programme. The fund supports charities around the world.
â€Through Gift Aid, UK Fund will be able to reclaim the tax paid on the donation and send it back to the donor,â€ she says.
â€œThere are many in the UK who support South Africa and its cultural organizations, and we are confident a large number of donations will come to the CPO in this manner. The CPO is one of a small handful of South African organisations that are registered with the UK Charities Commission which has very high compliance requirements.â€Download the form here. You may pay by cheque, transfer or credit card.

FOM has a new home in Germany

Residents of the Federal Republic of Germany now have the opportunity to support FOM thanks to Dr Alex Horvath, whose â€œproCAPEriccioâ€ organization has been registered with the appropriate tax authorities in Germany and is a vehicle to raise funds for the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra via FOM from amongst its German members and supporters. All donations to â€œproCAPEriccioâ€ will enjoy tax exemption from the German authorities. Says chairman Derek Auret, the tax exemption question is one that FOM is also actively pursuing here via the FOM Trust. If you know of any people in Germany who may be interested, please advise Derek on derek@auret.co.za.

CPO makes a connection in Gugulethu

The Potterâ€™s House Christian Fellowship Church in Gugulethu is staging its annual Christmas play to focus on bringing change into peopleâ€™s lives. Itâ€™s main aim is to reach out to broken homes, drug users and where there is crime. Performances take place on December 19 and 20 at 19:00 and on the 21st at 18:00 at the Masikhanye Centre in Gugulethu NY1. The CPO is supporting this by offering 4 double tickets to the CPYO/CPWE gala concert on February 19. This takes place at the City Hall at 19:00 and actually concludes the 9th International Summer Music Festival.

Dukas in the dark

Dukasâ€™s Sorcererâ€™s Apprentice got up to some mischief at Stellenbosch on Friday night. Minutes after the orchestra began to play, the imp turned the lights off. Oh no, that was actually load shedding! The Endler Hall soon has its backup generator up and running so the packed house for the Huberte Rupert memorial concert could enjoy the CPO and Sarita Uranovskyâ€™s outstanding Beethoven Violin Concerto. Letâ€™s hope the City Hall has a back up generator...

Festival subscriptions on sale

Subscription renewals are open for the 9th Cape Town International Summer Music Festival. Principal guest conductor Martin Panteleev will conduct all four concerts with soloists Stewart Goodyear and Derek Han (piano), violinist Yi-Jia Susanne Hou, and clarinettist Maria du Toit, They take place at the Cape Town City Hall from January 22 to February 12. Ms Du Toit will also be the soloist at the Kirstenbosch concert on February 1.
Re-subscribe before November 29, get 20 per cent discount and a further 10 per cent if you are a Friend of Orchestral Music, and stand a chance to win two extra tickets to the Yamblonsky Trioâ€™s Beethoven Triple Concerto on April 9 to bring friends.
New subscribers can buy subscriptions from December 8, attract the same discounts, and stand a chance to win a pair of tickets to the same concert.

Adrian More Piano Concerto to be premiered

Adrian More is one of South Africaâ€™s most talented young composers. A friend of FranÃ§ois du Toit, Adrian and FranÃ§ois collaborated on programme notes. Adrian was the subject of a Cape Times interview on Friday â€“ read the article here.

Owain Arwel Hughes back

Owain Arwel Hughes received a warm welcome from the musicians last week â€¦ and he is delighted to be back.
He had a wonderful time here, he said, as principal guest conductor, with great concerts, vast repertoire and some superb recordings, which helped the CPO gain international recognition.
In the intervening years, he has been working a great deal with the orchestras in Wales and London, his new Camerata Wales, and held a recent concert which celebrated the centenary of the birth of Dylan Thomas. He commissioned composer Gareth Wood to write a suite as a setting of Under Milkwood and actors such as Jonathan Price, Sian Phillips and Tom Hollander read excerpts to the music.

CPO on Carte Blanche and Kwela

The CPO was the subject of a good-news story on the investigative programme, Carte Blanche. It was produced by Michael Duffett and edited by Claudia Garb and we are so appreciative of their embracing what we are doing. The star of the show, Noluvuyo Nteta, a member of the youth orchestra and a teacher in the Masidlale project, has just been accepted to study music at the University of Stellenbosch.
Ryan Oâ€™Connor, the breakfast show host on KFM 94.5, saw the show and praised Carte Blanche for the good news story! He also called on his listeners to support the CPO! Watch the clip here.

Don't forget to watch Kwela on KykNet, Channel 144, on Wednesday 26 November at 20:00. That's the next television coverage we will be delighted to see.

FOM Gala

Excitement is really building now, for the FOM gala concert on December 4 to celebrate the CPOâ€™s centenary, with all the musicians sponsored by concertgoers for acknowledgement in the programme. The poster and cover has been designed by committee member and artist Karinina Ingwerson.

THE Book!!

If you donâ€™t get your copy of A Century of Symphony at a discounted price at the gala concert, you will be able to purchase it at Peter Kramerâ€™s Dynamite Music at all CPO concerts. We are looking at ways overseas buyers can get copies.

At Paarl Printers, Louis Heyneman and designer Chris Roux, check if the colours in the centenary book are what they should be.

Airline refuses to take cello

Santiago CaÃ±Ã³n Valencia, who astounded us last year with his exciting Gulda Cello Concerto, was the latest victim of airline rules. Arriving in Toronto to fly on to Halifax where Bernhard Gueller had invited him to play both the Haydn Cello Concerto in C and Tchaikovsky Variations on a Rococo Theme with Symphony Nova Scotia, he found that West Jet wasnâ€™t prepared to allow the cello on board. So the poor young man had a 12 hour overnight wait in the terminal watching over his 1759 Mantegazza before he could fly into Halifax. That aside, Gueller says his first rehearsal a few hours later was stunning and the concert showed the world class of this young Columbian.

New Apostolic Male Choir

The New Apostolic Male Choir was the choir who sang so beautifully with Hanneli Rupert in the Brahms Alto Rhapsody at the Concert on November 13. We literally almost had to stop the presses when the soloist advised us that he was too ill to travel and we needed to replace him. Then it was not clear whether the substitute, Fedor Rudin, would play one work or two and by the time the second one was reinstated the presses had to roll or we would not have had a programme for the concert. Under the pressure that ensued, the choirâ€™s name was inadvertently dropped. The CPO regrets this happened most particularly because over the years we have developed an exceptionally close relationship with the church and many of its choirs, making the NAC our choir of choice.
The choir, which was trained by Kent Stephens, was a real inspiration to all music lovers and we look forward to having it sing again with us in the near future.

Medallions cast to commemorate the CPO centenary

The first medallions that Trust chairman Ton Vosloo conceived with Natalie Jaffe of City Coins were cast last week at Pagliari by SA Mint, who designed the silver and bronze medallions for members of the CPO, its board and management, and all the youth orchestra musicians to mark 100 years of outstanding music. The design includes music played at the first concert in 1914 â€“ the Meistersinger of Nuremberg.

Striking of the first silver medal to commemorate the 100 years of the orchestra in Cape Town

CPO Music Academy Christmas concert

Musicians of the CPO Music Academy lit up many your lives in their Christmas concert on Saturday. The fantastic Cape Town Brass Quintet got it off to a great start then it was over to the learners, and their teachers.
The full house was delighted with what Laurika Steenkamp, education and outreach manager, and her team are achieving with these wonderfully talented young musicians, all on their way to growing into the CPYO and CPWE and then â€¦. the CPO itself.

Juliet Quartet of CPO players for Constantia series December 7

The Juliet Quartet (CPO Associate Concertmaster Patrick Goodwin and violinist Anien Shaw, Emile de Roubaix, viola, and Babette Roux, cello) with bassoonist Simon Ball, Caroline van Renen (French horn), clarinettist Matthew Reid and double bass Roxane Steffen, will play at the inaugural concert of the new Christchurch Constantia where concerts will be hosted on the first Sunday afternoon of every month. On the programme is the Schubert Octet in F. The concert begins at 3pm. Tickets are R100/R80 and obtainable from Anne Burrough on 082 218 0100 or 021 794 5051. www.christchurchconstantia.co.za